Fabulous Finding Aids!

The following is a list of the 10 finding aids that were completed during February 2014. All are available through the NWDA finding aids database as well as on the SCARC website. MARC records for the collections are available through the OSU Libraries’ Catalog, Summit Navigator, and Worldcat.

This month’s batch consists of guides for 3 “new” collections that were received in 2013, 4 maps collections, and 3 collections that previously had minimal descriptive information available online. As of February 28, 2014 the OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center had 740 finding aids in NWDA.

Alpha Chi Omega Chi Chapter Minutes, 1918 (MSS AlphaChiOmega)

These minutes document weekly chapter meetings of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority in the winter and spring of 1918. The Chi Chapter was established at Oregon Agricultural College in 1915.

The Weaver Papers reflect the poetry and teaching career of Roger Weaver and include biographical materials, books of Weaver’s poems, a journal, and a sound recording. Weaver was a faculty member in the Oregon State University English Department from 1962 until his retirement in 1996.

These lantern slides consists of 9 photographs made by Warren C. Wilson during a 1936 alpine plant collecting trip in Colorado and Washington. Wilson graduated from Cornell University and was a plant propagator and nursery owner in Maplewood, Oregon, specializing in alpine flora.

This collection of 28 maps includes statewide maps as well as maps of individual basins. The maps define basin boundaries and depict the rivers and streams within each basin (or watershed). Land use maps for several of the basins are also part of the collection.

The Oregon State Highway Maps consist primarily of the official highway map for Oregon produced annually by the Oregon State Highway Department. The collection consists of 84 maps; many of the maps are available online in the Oregon Maps digital collection: http://oregondigital.org/digcol/ormaps/

These maps were prepared by the U.S. Public Roads Administration and document transportation in Oregon, immediately preceding and during World War II, in 1940 and 1944. The maps depict highway, railroads, canals, air lanes, and dredged channels. The collection includes 24 maps.

This collection consists of detailed maps for 16 tideland regions depicting the lands owned by the State of Oregon; those that are private; and land owned by ports, cities, counties, or the federal government.

This extensive collection consists of more than 250 oral history interviews conducted or assembled by the Horner Museum. The interviews address a variety of topics including Oregon State University faculty, students, and academic departments; Corvallis and Benton County, Oregon; evolving economic and cultural perspectives on natural resources in rural Oregon; the life experiences of Native Americans and other ethnic minorities in the region; and the recollections of American born in the first decades of the twentieth century. The collection includes 418 audiocassettes and 103 photographs. A detailed description of the collection contents is part of the guide.

This small collection includes newspapers, correspondence, handwritten songs, and artwork contemporary to the U.S. Civil War. Much of the collection was assembled by James H. Lewis, a soldier in the 24th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment. These materials were originally acquired for the McDonald Rare Book Collection and were separated in 2014 to form this separate collection. The guide includes an item-level list of the collection contents.

These propaganda posters were generated by United States government agencies, civilian service organizations, and foreign agencies between 1941 and 1945. The collection contains numerous posters addressing U.S. war production, war bond and stamp sales, military recruiting, civil defense, civilian wartime responsibilities, and pro-U.S. propaganda. The collection includes 216 unique posters and 79 duplicates. An item-level list of the posters forms the bulk of this guide.